From the Pythagorean theorem to the double helix of DNA, from the discovery of microscopic life forms to Einstein's general theory of relativity, the big ideas of science and technology shape our worldview. This book presents six illustrated timelinesóinformation, medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, and transportationóchronicling scientific and technological breakthroughs and the thinkers who came up with them. But these timelines flow backwards; from a big idea like quantum computing, for example, the book looks back to vacuum tube computers, the work of Allan Turing, television, quantum theory, the discovery of radio waves, the electrical technologies of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.